Personally, these changes take away from the map a lot. Opening up the center removes the “brawling” aspect of it. The middle didn’t seem to dominate the mad or anything. With these changes, the middle is useless and turns the map into yet another corridor shootout. I feel the designated TD spots are sort of redundant, as the current buildings near spawn provided similar cover, but forced TDs to relocate to be productive after a while. As for the other smaller changes: Moving the rock/island back at c3 makes the corner fight a bit longer, and by pushing the top back, gives the bottom road (at the waterfall) more opportunity; as for the temple, removing some buildings is overall better for mediums, as countless times I have charged in and been surprised by a Grille 15 (or similar) lurking behind the back most building. At the same time this doesn’t help lights in any way.

but with opening up the middle the rather “force” the players to either use the corridor at the NW (heavy-corner) or the SE (med-corner). the middle will surely be a death zone, so it will be of no use most of the times. and even with a very good scout (with camo, oprics and all) you do not outspot a waiting TD – before it opens fire and instant-kills you …

Honestly, they can use steppes as an example of doing open area’s right yet fail to do so. Some obstacles( hardcover + softcover ) in the middle and a section that is lower than the rest so it’s not a giant deathzone but provides actual hardcover and hull down opportunity for medium and light tanks to spot without it being suicide is all that is needed to make an open section not a giant death trap ( though steppes is still too open, obviously, it’s still one of the better maps in world of tanks )

This has probably made the map more corridor like because flattening out the map makes tanks more vulnerable to artillery. There are less bushes and terrain cover to hide behind so it does eliminate the central aspect of the map. Really, the only places that are safe now are hugging the side of a mountain in the north/center or the palace in the south. Scouts will be able to spot tanks more easily but in return will not be able to stay hidden so essentially increasing suicide scouting casualties. Perhaps these map tests go hand in hand with artillery rebalances but in the current form of the game, there will be a lot less of the map that will be playable.

I honestly dont see why they felt the need to change this map and they fuckin made it worse for good players who liked using the middle area while making things easier for the cancerous idiots who only know how to push W.